here foreigners may vote on their "first
papers" and citizenship is not a qualification for a vote.

The returns offer still other food for reflection. Hutchinson county,
for example, carried prohibition and lost woman suffrage. It gave 584
dry votes; 510 wet votes. It gave 432 "yes" votes on woman suffrage
and 1,583 "no" votes. Thus 921 more votes were cast on the suffrage
proposition than on the prohibition question. The people in this
county are German-Russians and exceedingly ignorant. Apparently
they were not intelligent enough to be lined up to vote "no" on both
questions. Is it not likely that these votes were intended to be "wet"
and that they made a mistake and picked No. 6 instead of No. 7? If
not, why not?

The largest group of the foreign population of these counties are
German-Russians. They migrated from Germany and found a home in Russia
some 230 or more years ago, in order to escape conscription. When
Russia began to enforce conscription about 1888 the entire group came
to America and settled in colonies in the Western states which at the
time offered free lands. They were totally illiterate then. They had
not progressed as Germans in their own country had done but being
clannish had remained at the point of development reached at the date
of their migration. They are still clannish and have not yet escaped
from the mental habits of the Middle Ages. These are the men who have
denied American women the vote in South Dakota. That the women of
South Dakota in very large numbers wanted the vote no one questions.
During the campaign six women in Sioux Falls published an appeal to
voters not to support the amendment as they did not wish to vote.
Shortly after an appeal to the voters of the same city was published
and was signed by 3,000 women. In every county of the state the women
manifested their interest by doing all they knew how to do. West
Virginia was the first Southern state to submit a referendum on woman
suffrage and the vote was taken November 7, 1916. The amendment was
defeated by the largest proportional majority any suffrage amendment
ever received. Unlike Iowa and South Dakota, where all the educated
classes with notable exceptions believe in woman suffrage, West
Virginia probably has many conscientious doubters. Arguments and
excuses which did service in the West twenty-five years ago were
brought forward as though just formulated. The illiteracy of the state
is appallingly high and the illit